


99%

by Lets_go_to_vermont



Series: We Still Press Forward [3]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Yu-Gi-Oh! Series
Genre: F/M, Gen, Professor Jounouchi, Starts at season 2 of GX
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-07
Updated: 2016-01-01
Packaged: 2018-04-13 11:41:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 14,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4520586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lets_go_to_vermont/pseuds/Lets_go_to_vermont
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Due to funding cuts, Jounouchi gets let go from his job at the Domino City Hospital. </p><p>Meanwhile, Kaiba Corp VP Mokuba is frantic trying to replace the spot of a teacher who died at the main branch of Duel Academia. This combined with occurrences like students missing and letters about poor living conditions of students have put the danger of an investigation into his lap. An investigation that could close the school. He needs to save his brother's beloved Duel Academia before this happens. If only he knew of someone with the proper credentials to replace the teacher. Someone on the inside who can find out what's REALLY going on. Someone he can trust. Someone who needs a job and is a capable duelist. </p><p>Judai and his friends barely survived the Three Phantom Demons last year, hopefully this year will bring nothing but good laughs and worrying about exams. However, it's never that easy. Not to mention the nightmares that he can't seem to remember.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1: Changed Fate- An Unexpected Occurance

**Author's Note:**

> I have a short little one-shot that's a prequel to this that I recommend. It's not necessary to read though.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jounouchi finds out a disappointing thing. Ryou bakes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First, this is an AU of Yu-Gi-Oh GX starting at season 2.
> 
> Second, I took a little liberty with Jounouchi. After all it’s been ten years. Hopefully he’s got the right amount of maturity for a 28 year old. 
> 
> Third, this is story is basically BBT on crack, since I plan to tie in DM, GX, and 5Ds into a mega series where minor characters get their chance to shine. Jounouchi and Judai and a few others will still appear in most if not all stories. I plan to break it up by story arcs. 
> 
> Fourth, there are two “prequel” stories that aren’t necessary, but feature younger Jounouchi. The first is Gifted and the second Recognition.

           Katsuya Jounouchi walked dejectedly through western Domino City on a hot July afternoon. He had called Domino City his home for as long as he remembered. He was born here, went through all of his schooling here, and had worked at the hospital since he graduated.  He loved the city, loved his job, and loved all the memories he had made here with his friends. So, his somber mood was an unusual occurrence, as typically he would walk through in the late afternoon with a small smile, watching as the other people there went about their own business. But today was not a normal day.

 

            Earlier that day, Jounouchi had walked into the run down Domino City Hospital only to be pulled into a staff break room with his three fellow social workers for a seemingly impromptu meeting.

            Mizuki gravely looked the three of them in the eyes and curtly said “Our funding is being cut again.”

            Since the construction of Domino General Hospital on the other side of the city, the funding for this hospital had been cut in every area at least twice. Jounouchi knew why. That particular hospital was brand new and in a wealthier district of town while this one was practically ancient and near Jounouchi’s old neighborhood, where crime had really overtaken this side of the city in the past few years. The only large new thing in this entire area of town was one of Kaiba’s huge research facilities, and Jounouchi assumed that was because it was cheap property.

            So, it was really no surprise that their funding was being cut again. That meant his hours got cut again and so did his pay. What did surprise him was when Mizuki sighed and continued “We can’t afford to keep all three of you employed.”

            That statement hit Jounouchi like a ton of bricks. His coworkers had both been here at least five years longer than him and had never had any issues. He, on the other hand had been here four years and punched a guy in the face two years ago while working a case. He may sometimes be the last to comprehend situations, but even he knew what that meant. Mizuki might as well have let him go right in front of the other two.

            “The cut starts next month, so you’ll still be employed until then. You’ll know if you stay by the end of the day.” Mizuki stood up and left. His two coworkers complained about the unfairness, all while avoiding eye contact with Jounouchi, and then they too got up and left to escape the awkwardness of the situation. It isn’t as if Jounouchi hadn’t been fired before, but this is probably the most embarrassing way.

            Jounouchi let his head fall into his hands, thinking about how much he really could not believe this just happened, sighed, and asked himself “What am I supposed to do now?”

 

            That is what brings him to miserably walking to the café he frequented on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays a few miles north of his apartment. Today was Thursday, but that made no difference. Sometimes you need a large dessert and coffee and a friend to talk to and this was one of those times.

            He pushed the door open into the café, searching over the two occupants, who were eating their food while reading the new paper, for the owner and only worker. He walked up to the counter where he saw the top of a white head, the owner bent down behind the counter putting cupcakes on display. He got a mischievous grin and called “Oi, Bakura!”

            Ryou Bakura jumped from shock, resulting in him falling on his behind. He sighed and stood up. “Ehh, Jounouchi, you almost gave me a heart attack.”

            The only two friends of his high school entourage who still remained were Honda and Bakura. Yugi was currently in Peru, working with Rebecca Hopkins, who thankfully seemed to have lost any romantic interest in him and instead got really embarrassed whenever someone brought up her earlier actions. Anzu was in America, in a traveling theater group. It wasn’t Broadway, but she was very happy there. Honda was a cop, like he had wanted, but was on night hifts, so Jounouchi only got to see him on the weekends. Bakura had bought this little rundown café as soon as he graduated culinary school and completely revamped it. Jounouchi had thought he was crazy and it was doomed to fail, but then the Kaiba Corp Research Facility had been built across the street where an abandoned mall had been and since Bakura’s little café was the only eatery within a short walking distance, he quickly developed a lot of regular customers. Well, it also helped that he was amazing at baking cakes.

            Jounouchi grinned. “Ya need to get a bell or something on the door. One day someone’s gonna steal all ya furniture and ya wouldn’t have even notice that they were here.”

            Bakura laughed nervously. “Maybe.” Then he paused. “Today’s Thursday.” So why are you here, though he didn’t say that last part.

            “I got some bad news today.”

            Bakura looked thoughtful for a moment. “About your dad?”

            “Not yet. His next doctor appointment is next week” Jounouchi’s relationship with his dad had been complicated since he was a child, not that any of his friends knew it. His repetitive cycle of getting a job, drinking and gambling away all their money on the weekends, then getting fired went on for twelve years. He had worked, even though he had still in middle and high school. He had put up with the yelling and beer bottles being thrown. He had put up with spending days wondering where his dad was at. Even though Jounouchi had wanted to punch his dad most the time, he still loved him.  So a year and a half ago when he brought groceries to the cheap apartment that his dad lived in and saw that his legs were swelled he took him to the doctor. Of course, with both of their luck, it wasn’t something quick and easy to fix but instead a chronic liver disease, so now he was left buying medicine to treat the symptoms of said disease. Yet another reason he needed that job.

            “Then…” Bakura pressed as he started pouring two cups of coffee.

            “They cut the funding to the hospital again, so starting next month I’ll no longer be working there. Thanks” He said as Bakura handed him one of the cups and a slice of cake. They sat down at the table closest to the counter.

            “That… That’s terrible. What are you going to do?” 

            “There’s nothing I can do, ‘cept start filling out applications. I might even have to move.”

            Bakura frowned. “Well maybe you can get on at a school or the other hospital.”

            They were quiet for a few minutes, and then chatted about random topics. What they thought about Honda’s new girlfriend, if the champion of the dueling pro league was going to win the title match next year, and what was being researched in that big facility of Kaiba’s (Jounouchi had money on dragons) until a group of people came in.

            Jounouchi took that as his cue to leave and said goodbye. He thought over every possible place to work at in the city and there weren’t many. He thought all things that he loved about his job. Working with kids who didn’t have anyone to look out for them and helping them. The sheer joy he felt when some of them would recognize him and get ecstatic that he was working with them. That relief he felt when he went to bed after successful cases, knowing that those kids would finally be safe.

            He then thought about what he would do without the salary. There was his dad’s medicine and their living expenses. His dad worked at a little corner market, but that wasn’t enough to cover it. There was also the fact of his pregnant sister, and the nephew that he really wanted to be able to see at least once a month when he was born. These thoughts plagued him until he lay in bed later that night, with worry gnawing at his stomach.

            Little did he know that a single change was taking place elsewhere that would change his own path.


	2. Chapter 2: The Willful Brother- Protect Duel Academia!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mokuba has a problem, makes a plan, then manipulates to solve the plan. Seto would be so proud if he knew anything was even happening.

Mokuba Kaiba sighed as he opened another letter.

**_Dear whomever it may concern,_ **

**_I’m writing in response to issues my son has brought up to me about his experiences this past year at Duel Academia Main._ **

As he expected, it was _another_ letter of complaint. This was the twentieth he had received since the school had been let out for the months of August and September. Twenty normally wouldn’t be odd except for the fact of only about one hundred students attended the main branch of Duel Academia.  Twenty letters of complaint for a new product they released out of the millions that bought it? No problem. But twenty letters out of one hundred was unacceptable. Especially when considering it had only been two weeks since the students had returned home.

Normally, Mokuba didn’t deal with these types of issues. He only oversaw and approved the budget for the place, as he did with all his brother’s non-profit projects. After all, there were five different branches and they all had different budgets. So, the most he did was run a quick analysis of the cost of employee pay, power, food, and utilities.  The rest was to be overseen by the chairman of the school. He didn’t even consider the fact that Kagemaru, the man who had worked with his brother countless hours creating Duel Academia, the man who poured what little energy he had left into the school that Seto was so proud of, would be covering things up. Things like one of the dorms being unusable. Things like teacher morality being called into question. Things like students _disappearing_ without a trace. If that teacher hadn’t died and led to Mokuba investigating why he hadn’t been told he was sick, how much longer would these issues have continued clandestinely? Mokuba groaned and dropped the letter back on his desk, grateful that his brother wasn’t here to see what was wrong.

It wasn’t that Mokuba wanted to hide what was wrong, but his brother would take it on himself to fix the problem, as he did with everything. Seto’s hands-on approach is one of the things that make him and Kaiba Corp so successful. Where for many it would have crashed and burned when the transition from weapons to game technology started, Seto got involved if he was concerned about how the project was being handled. That is why he wasn’t in his office, thankfully, but was instead out at the facility on the other side of town with a few of his top stockholders. Not that their stocks were greater than Seto or Mokuba’s, but still, ten percent for one and five for two meant a lot of money invested in a company the size of Kaiba Corporation.

Mokuba wanted to fix these issues himself, without bothering Seto. So when he heard his brother’s voice down the hallway an hour later, he hurriedly shoved the letters into his briefcase in case Seto stopped by. He would do this, but he had to be hasty. He needed a plan and to get it set up before the new school year started in October.

Coming up with the plan wasn’t so hard. Mokuba left work early that day, surprising the maid that was mopping in the entrance way at the Kaiba mansion. He apologized for giving her a fright, and then hurried up the stairs to the office that he had been given a few years ago. There, he erased what was written on the whiteboards that wrapped around the room. He was the type of person that gathered his thoughts by writing them down, and his favorite place to do that was on the white boards, where destroying the information forever only required a spray bottle and an eraser.  After about thirty minutes of cycling between thinking, writing, and erasing, he had his plan.

First, he was going to hire the replacement teacher. Technically, they already had hired a new teacher (well, he had transferred from the East Duel Academy), but this one was not a head of a dorm like the last one had been, he was instead the vice principal and was only to replace the classes he had taught. Plus, since the principal, Samejima, had just _happened_ to request a few months off, they needed another teacher anyways. He didn’t want this to be anybody though. After all that had gone down at Duel Academia the past few years without anyone knowing it, he wanted someone he could trust, who would tell him what was happening there. The person would have to be someone who was a good duelist but could also get along with the students. The duelist would also have to be male since he would be the head of an all-male dorm.

Second, he would get the students opinions. After all, they were the ones who would most likely be honest.

Finally, he would still approve the tournament request he had gotten from Samejima. After all, there were no strange forces or evil ancient relics at Duel Academia. Nothing weird would happen if the tournament was held there.

 

Mokuba leaned back against the park bench. He had spent the past week trying to accomplish his first task, finding a teacher. He knew it would be difficult but had not imagined how difficult. He had called several people he had worked with in the past, only to get turned down by every single one. He was running out of options and time, because whomever he hired would still have to be trained and be ready to start by October. At this point, he was borderline desperate. He had gotten a call two days ago from the Kaiba Corp PR Representative saying that someone was trying to start an investigation into Duel Academia‘s student disappearances with the government. It had been held off just because of the lack of proof, but if anything new came forward then they would open the case. _That’s just what we need._ Mokuba thought to himself.

  He was lost in his thoughts, so he didn’t notice when a person recognized him and approached. Mokuba whipped his head to the side when said person sat down beside him.  With his shaggy blonde hair, goofy smile, and ability to look completely out of place in a business suit, Mokuba recognized him instantly.

“Oi, Jounouchi, thanks for scaring me half to death. How about a warning next time?” Mokuba chided.

“Eh, sorry, but I didn’t sneak. You were looking right at me when I walked over here.” Jounouchi paused “Long time no see, huh?”

Mokuba thought back. “Yeah, I haven’t seen you since last year at the unveiling of the new duel disk model.”

“Yep. I was Yugi’s plus one. What brings you here anyways?”

“To this particular bench or the park itself.” Mokuba said with a slight smile.

Jounouchi sighed. _And here I thought the older one was the wise guy._ “The park.”

“A good place to sit and collect my thoughts.”

“Heh, same. I also like to watch everybody.” Jounouchi said, diverting his attention to a little boy who ran by while kicking a ball.

“What about you? I’m guessing you just got off work. Do you still work at the hospital?” Mokuba gestured to Jounouchi’s lap where his briefcase sat.

“Hmm, yep.” _For about one and a half more weeks._ _What’s worse is that no place in this city seems to be hiring._

“How is that going? You still like it?”

“I do! Or at least I did.”

“What happened?”

“They cut hospital funding enough that someone had to be let go. And guess who got the boot.”

“Really?”

“Yep, at the start of September I will officially have no job there anymore. And apparently no one in Domino City is hiring in my field.”

“Really? What is it you do again? Where would you work at?”

“I work with kids, mostly abuse, and I pretty much can work at places like that. Hospitals and schools and the like.”

A plan started to form in Mokuba’s mind. “Schools, huh?” It was perfect. Jounouchi didn’t have a teaching degree, but that would be an easy problem to get around.  Not only was he a good duelist but Mokuba had witnessed how he had acted under extreme circumstances. He had thrown himself in harm’s way to help people. Also, Jounouchi was a friend, and if this helped him out too, then even better.

“Yep. In fact, I just put my application in at Domino High.”

“Huh. I’m in the opposite boat.”

Jounouchi looked very confused. “What do you mean by that?”

“You remember the Duel Academia that my brother owns?” A nod. “Well, apparently the chairman has been covering up things, and I need to fix everything. I wouldn’t have even found out about it if a staff member hadn’t needed replacing. That’s what I need though, to find a duelist who can work with the students and also find out what’s going on there.”

Jounouchi was clueless to what Mokuba was implying. “Really?  Like a dueling teacher?”

“Not necessary, just someone who can _work with the kids_ and that _I know well_ that _duels_.” Jounouchi still looked confused. _Am I going to have to draw the guy a map?_ Mokuba wondered. “Hey! You said that you can work with kids, right?”

Realization dawned on Jounouchi’s face. “Mokuba I work with kids with home troubles not duel troubles.”

“Yes, but the kids that you would work with need encouragement. Plus, plenty of students there need someone with your background to talk to them.” Mokuba knew just what else to add “And I’m sure you’re a personal hero to a bunch of them.” Those must have been the magic words because Jounouchi’s entire demeanor changed. Mokuba knew he had him.

Mokuba stood up and handed Jounouchi one of the business cards that he always kept on his person. “Think it over, and call me if you’re interested. But be hasty about it.”

Mokuba turned and walked away with a small smile, thanking whatever force had presented him with this miracle. _Now to see how long that phone call takes._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took a little liberty Mokuba’s character as well. He’s in his early twenties, so I imagine his personality being a lot more abrasive than it was in his when he was a kid. He’s got a lot more responsibility now. 
> 
> I also imagine that when Mokuba got old enough Seto would give him all the boring desk work stuff while Seto focused more on development a Kaiba Corp branched into more science-intensive stuff. 
> 
> (Which I’m really excited to address when it becomes available to mention because I’m an engineering nerd. Technically, I should only be nerding out about flying projects but the aerodynamics of the dragon jet literally make me cringe and wonder  
> 1\. How there haven’t been micron-sized cracks in the structure, and  
> 2\. Is it made out of carbon fiber composites, because I feel it would be too heavy if not. Gosh, when I get to the Momentum machine… I would like to apologize in advance.) 
> 
> And Mokuba IS a Vice President, he has to have the ability to deal with people. Plus it helps that he knows Jounouchi well enough to know what to say.
> 
> We get to see some of Jounouchi's old personality here, though he's not nearly as hotheaded as he used to be. Mostly he remembers Mokuba as a cute little tag along and can't bring himself to be mad at him.


	3. CH 3: A Foreboding Dream- Enter Judai!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Judai gets hot and bothered by dreams, but not in the way you think.

_It starts off in the middle of nothing. His eyes are open. At least he thinks they are. He can’t tell. He can’t see anything. There’s nothing but darkness. He can’t even see himself. He doesn’t even know what he looks like. Is he even here? He’s not sure. He thinks he must be. After all he can feel it. It’s cold- so cold. He thinks he has frozen to death. Because that’s what this place feels like. Death. Nothing can live here. He knows that. Anything that resides here is not alive, only a mere shadow of it. He wonders if that means that he is dead. He decides he can’t be. After all, he can hear his pulse pounding in his ears, blocking out every other sound._

_The darkness is maddening. He feels like he has been there for hours. No years. Or maybe he has always been there. He can’t remember anything but the darkness. He focuses his vision and it looks like the darkness is moving. No, wait. He is moving. He’s flying through it. The cold he feels is so intense because of how fast he’s moving. He wishes that he would stop. It’s so cold. Suddenly there were creatures moving before him. Terror filled him. They looked familiar but he had no words for them except ‘bad’._

_Suddenly he is jerked upwards through the darkness._

_Then it becomes everything. He is surrounded by bright colors. The stars glitter like gems. The primordial dust glows purple and blue and green and colors that he had never seen before. Swirling galaxies surrounded him in every direction. He can see himself again, but he pays no attention. He is nothing compared to this, just a small dot in this vast cosmos._

_It’s warm here. It’s so nice, like the soft, gentle afternoon sun on a spring day. He’s surrounded by a mixture of light and darkness. Life. It fills his heart and his blood and his lungs._

_Then he hears it. “Judai.” He remembers. He’s Judai. They’re calling to him. Their voice is soft, like a whisper on the breeze. He can’t remember who the voice belongs to, but he recognizes the owner of it as strong and kind to him, but also brutal and cold to others._

_“Judai, don’t worry. We’ll be together soon, and I’ll show you the same love you have shown me.” Their voice is crooning to him. His heartbeat slows again and a different kind of warmth fills him. Gone is the terror he felt previously. (Was it moments or eons ago? He’s not sure.)  Those words fill him with hope. Yes, they’ll be together soon and everything will be okay. He’ll do what needs to be done and both of them will finally be safe and happy. They’ll see that he didn’t want to leave them all alone. He was only trying to help.  People were getting hurt. He’ll make it up to them. He’ll make them see how much they mean to him. He tried to speak, but nothing came out. The voice continued to repeat his name over and over again. “Judai. Judai. Judai.” It started to fade._

_He was flying again, towards a bright white star. As he got closer, he realized it wasn’t a star. It almost reminded him of those effects that science fiction movies had for black holes, except instead of pulling everything in it was radiating a bright light. As he got closer, the light got brighter. It was like looking into a fluorescent bulb. Then it was like looking into the sun. He began to feel uncomfortably hot._

_Soon he saw nothing but the bright white light. It burned at his retinas and even with his eyes closed he could still see it. He felt like his skin had been set on fire and was melting off. Every thought other than ‘pain’ was bleached away by its sheer intensity. He screamed but no sound came out and now his lungs were on fire too. Even through this pain though, he still heard the voice that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. “We’ll meet soon.”_

* * *

 

Judai Yuki tumbled off his couch, where he had fallen asleep sorting through his deck. His cards fluttered to the floor around him as sweat dripped off his face. He’d had another nightmare.  This had taken to happening since he first came home for break. He would jump awake with his heart pounding and covered in sweat, remembering nothing of what he’d just dreamed. The one night that his parents had been here, they had gone rushing to his room asking if he was okay. He had laughed off their concerns, but was now starting to wonder if he was doomed to never sleep a full night ever again. He had said the same to Sho earlier, only used “weird dreams” instead of nightmares. Sho said that it was just because he was so used to sleeping in the beds at Duel Academia. Judai didn’t believe him, but had agreed just to change the subject.

He slowly picked up his cards, trying to focus on what he had been doing before he had fallen asleep, but he still could not erase the feeling of dread that remained.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short chapter, but this was mostly to introduce the dreams. We're getting close to starting in plot territory, so I'm excited.  
> Also, I hope the Yubel/Judai wasn't off-putting because it's going to be fun times in the future. And by fun times I mean Judai gets so much mind screwing it's almost sad. Poor dude. And I promise that it won’t actually be more than what is in cannon. I’m not really a “ship everybody” person.


	4. CH 4: Welcome to Duel Academia- The New Professor Jounouchi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jounouchi has finally arrived at Duel Academia!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Featuring a letter from Yugi! He won't appear much in this story in person, sadly.

_Jounouchi,_

_Guess what! Dr. Hopkins made me a cowriter on his book! I’ll send you a Japanese copy when we finish it. We’re going to collaborate by email, since he is in California right now. He’s almost halfway done, so I’ll help on the remaining bit and help him edit it before it’s sent off to the publisher. Well, he’ll do most of the editing, since you know my English isn’t the best. Also, I’ve started picking up on Spanish. Well, it’s mostly names for our tools and some food names. Leche is milk! I mixed it up with lechuga (lettuce), which got me odd looks Saturday when I ordered a glass of it. Luckily, Rebecca is pretty fluent and helps me out. She also wants to hit you because of you asking if she still introduces me with “cute nicknames”. I still can’t believe you asked that! I think she’s so mad because Paulo, one of the helpers here who is fluent in Japanese, heard me read that paragraph to her out loud. He’s the one from Brazil. Between you and me, I think she really likes him. But please don’t say anything to her._

_Peru is amazing! It’s so great being able to visit the ruins here without worrying about evil forces. We went to Lima over the weekend, it was really exciting. That’s where I accidentally ordered the glass of lettuce. We had to get more supplies and also we went sight-seeing. I took a lot of pictures that I’ll mail to you as soon as I get them developed, along with info about the things in the photos. What’s your new mailing address with the Duel Academia?_

_It’s still so strange that you’re going to be working at Kaiba’s duel school. Not the strangest thing, but maybe top ten. Never mind about being in the top ten, too many strange things have happened to us. It’s still strange though, especially since you made a point to everyone when we were graduating that you were not going to be a duelist. But I’m still glad that you were able to find a job working with kids. I know how much you like it. That was so nice of Mokuba to offer that to you. Also, tell him I said hi and I hope he’s doing well. You’ll have to tell me all about your first week at the Academia. I’m really curious about how Kaiba’s Academia is. There’s nothing much about the inner workings anywhere that I’ve seen. Rebecca said that it was strange that there was next to no information anywhere on the web. You’ll also have to tell me about your coworkers. Rebecca thinks they’ll all be older than you but I think they’ll be about the same age. You said students arrive Saturday and classes start on Monday, right? Well, you should use the rest of this week to get situated. I know you’ll do fine._

_Hope to hear from you soon,_

_Yugi_

_PS: Bakura said Honda had a new girlfriend! What do you think about her? I never met the last one but neither you nor Bakura liked her, so hopefully this one is nicer._

_PPS: Anzu and I are both going to come back around the end of December since that’s a big deal here in the West and she has half a month off and I’m going to have a break right around that time. I think this will be better than the February meet up, since you won’t be able to be there if we did come at that time. Anzu will figure out details as we get closer. You know how she’s good at planning. Also, I’ve learned a new way to play dominoes and when I come back you will have to play it!_

_PPPS: How is your dad doing?_

* * *

 

 

Jounouchi smiled as he read the email from Yugi. Even after being apart for almost ten years, he still considered Yugi to be his closest friend. Though they only got to see each other one or two times a year, they still emailed each other twice a week. It worked out well for them because of the difference in time zones. He closed down the computer he was on in his new bedroom. He would reply when he could tell Yugi more about Duel Academia.

He didn’t really know much about it yet. He had gotten here two days ago so that he could get situated before anyone else got here. Mokuba and he had walked around the large campus. Mokuba had jotted down things on a clipboard as he walked, and now there were small changes going on around the island, including repainting the Osiris and Ra dorms and fixing any damage that was found at the dorms or main building.

Jounouchi had finished his “training” then, which just consisted of safety practices and signing waivers. He also found out the class he would teach. Well, teach was a strong word in this case. He would be over the newly created Field Duel class, where he just mostly supervised the students as they dueled each other and as long as they participated they would get credit of some sort. Some days they would break down into groups in the class and talk about each other’s strategies. That would also be where he would have to get them to fill out the surveys that Mokuba had given him about the classes, the teachers, and the living environment. Jounouchi wondered how those would work because if he was given surveys like that in school, he would just have halfheartedly filled them out.

He would also be the head of the Osiris Red Dorm, which Jounouchi was probably the most worried about. Being responsible for a group of kids at all times was a scary thought. The dorm itself was a small building that housed about twenty people. Inside, there had been posters taped haphazardly on the walls, paint and furniture damage, and what appeared to be a shrine to Seto Kaiba in someone’s window sill. All the items left in the rooms were collected and put in boxes corresponding to the room numbers and placed in Jounouchi’s room, to be picked up later by their owners. The rooms now all had a fresh coat of pain and new curtains. All in all, the Osiris Dorm was looking a lot nicer now than when he had first arrived. Mokuba was pleased with them, it seemed. He had given Jounouchi the explicit instructions to not let the dorm get in bad shape again, which Jounouchi happily agreed to. After all, he would be living here too over the next year.

Jounouchi lived on the bottom floor of the dorm, where the old dorm head used to live. Jounouchi found it weird to be living where a dead guy lived, even though he was assured that the guy didn’t die there. Jounouchi didn’t think he would have been able to stay in the room if the guy had _died_ in it. He was much too terrified of ghosts to even consider it. It may have been a little silly since all he went through when he was in high school plus the fact that he was friends with Atem who was, for all intents and purposes, a ghost. A bittersweet emotion filled him, as always when he thought of his friend who was no longer with him.

He changed his mind to more pleasant topics, like how his sister was going to mail him a copy of the picture from her latest ultrasound. Now that situation is probably one of the strangest things ever. Malik and Shizuka, he still didn’t understand it. Apparently, Malik had studied abroad in Japan from the university he attended in Egypt, and happened upon Shizuka at a coffee shop on campus. Next thing Jounouchi knew, Shizuka was declaring that she and Malik were engaged at Mom’s birthday dinner and Jounouchi was left sitting there, not quite sure what had happened. His friends were just as shocked, even Anzu. Hiroto had jokingly said “I’m not good enough to date your sister but the guy who tried to kill you is?” when they had a group meet up in America the next week before the opening night of the senior play Anzu would be in.

Well, in all honesty, he didn’t talk about girls and preferred types with Malik. And a guy who had raunchy conversations about how hot certain girls were was not someone he wanted dating his sister. And he wasn’t her type anyways. When he brought that point up, Honda had begun to smart back “Yeah, both your types are blondes with major issues and –ghhh.” He would have probably continued, but thankfully Anzu elbowed him hard in the ribs.

He continued to muse over the thought for a few minutes until he heard two very distinct voices. Not that the voice itself was odd, but the two voices had very distinct accents. Both were European, but Jounouchi couldn’t place the languages. They were talking a little too quietly for Jounouchi to hear what they were saying with their accents.

Figuring they may be repairmen, he pops out of his new room and calls to them. “Oi, are you guys lost?” A tall blond man and a short balding man were standing side by side, inspecting the Osiris Dorm’s touch ups. They both jumped when Jounouchi called to them, one with a shout of “Mama mia!” and turned quickly to him and approached.

“Who are you?” The very short man asked him accusingly. Their outfits told him they were teachers.

“I could say the same to you!” Jounouchi responded. He was hired in; don’t accuse him like he’s a random guy off the streets!

“Mama mia! You’re Katsuya Jounouchi!” The other one exclaimed in realization.

“The one and only!” Jounouchi responded, puffing up with pride.

“What’s a duelist as… revered as you doing here at duel academy?” The short one answered.

“Didn’t you get the memo? I’m the head of this Osiris Red Dorm now!” Jounouchi popped back as he turned to the building and gestured at it. Because of that, he didn’t see the looks of horror that crossed his new coworker’s faces. How were they supposed to get rid of the dorm if it had a famous duelist as its head?


	5. CH 5: The Switching of Destiny! New Professor, Katsuya Jounouchi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Judai and the gang are back at the academy, what exciting things will happen on move-in day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you guess where that title came from?

Judai Yuki had a feeling that this year was going to be different. He didn't know what it was. The ocean at Duel Academia was still the same shade of blue, the air still had the same salty taste, and according to the room assignment he just picked up, he was still in the same room in the Osiris Red dorm. However, he could  _feel_ that something was different. He walked beside Sho, who chatted amiably about how he spent the summer with his cousin while his parents helped Ryo get settled in to an apartment close to one of the big pro arenas that he would be dueling in.

Judai had spent his own summer mostly asleep, messing with his deck, or absently dribbling on the basketball court close to his house in hopes that someone would join him for a pickup game. His parents had been home one weekend, where they had drilled him about school. Did he like it? Did have friends? How were his grades? They weren't disappointed that his grades were low, since he knew for a fact that they thought he wasn't even going to go to high school. They were ecstatic when he told them that he had made several friends, even going so far as to tell him that he can invite them over for the next summer if he wanted to, or go over to one of their houses. He knew his parents disliked the fact that they never got to spend any time with him, but he didn't mind. He was perfectly fine sitting alone with his cards, as he had done for as long as he could remember.

He had to admit, though, that he did enjoy the company of his friends. It was nice to have people that genuinely seemed to like you instead of going out of their way to avoid you, like he had experienced in primary school. Middle school had been better, simply because most of the people who lived close to him went to the middle school nearer to his neighborhood. However, since it was such a far distance, he was unable to see his classmates much outside of school. He didn't have that problem here at Duel Academia. Plus, here he could always find someone to duel. It was exactly what he was going to do as soon as he got settled in.

He and Sho had finally reached the Red dorm, but they both stopped short once they got a good look at it. The dorm looked different.

"Wow! It looks almost nice now!" Sho said in awe, and Judai had to agree. Though he had always liked the dorm, even he had to admit that it had seen better days. Now, the entire building was freshly repainted. The broken window on the first floor was finally repaired. They discovered as they climbed the staircase that the three creaky stairs had been fixed.

Their little dorm room looked brand new. All the random belongings that they had left were gone. All the paint chips were gone, and even the dent in the wall said to come from Hayato's roommate from two years ago who got really excited when his favorite song came on the radio. The only thing out of place was the note taped to the edge of the middle bed.

Judai pulled it off. "It says " _Belongings that were left over the summer can be picked up from your dorm head after the welcome dinner._ " So we got a new dorm head?"

"I did hear that they hired some French guy, but that was the short guy that was with Professor Chronos." Sho said thoughtfully.

"Oh well, might as well get situated. You still getting middle?" Judai asked as they started unpacking their things.

"Yep! I'm kind of scared of falling off in the morning when I'm still half asleep. " It was the same reason that Judai had decided bottom bunk was best for him, especially since he fell out of bed a lot last year. The top bunk would stay empty, then. It seemed that even less people were in Osiris this year than last year, and the two of them did not have a third roommate. Judai was a little disappointed that they didn't have a younger roommate; he wanted to do his duty as a second year and mentor the underclassmen. Either way, he was still glad to be back in the dorm.

Judai and Sho made small talk while they set up the dorm, until the only things missing were the things they had left in there at the end of the previous term. When Judai's bags were all finally unpacked in the late afternoon, he hastily ate the food he had brought with him and sat down to play his favorite game on his student PDA only to be interrupted by a voice from the door.

"Excuse me, I'm looking for Judai Yuki" They both turned to the door to see a boy with light hair in an equally light suit.

* * *

Even though he had almost lost against a guy using a hastily thrown together deck, Judai didn't let it get him down. Judai still won, after all, and it was a pretty good duel. It just made him pumped to get to duel against Edo while he used his real deck. He said as much to Asuka, Manjoume, and Sho as soon as they realized who the strange freshman had been.

He stayed silent as Asuka started to recount her summer with her brother in France. Manjoume hung enthusiastically onto her every word, and then began to tell of his summer spent at one of his brother's house. It wasn't too different from Judai's own summer. Both stayed inside and made little human contact the entire summer. It was a pretty normal summer for Judai, since he always had lived far away from his school mates and all the kids in his neighborhood avoided him like the plague. It was strange, something he never quite understood. He couldn't recall ever having given them any reason to dislike him. He was very laid back; the only exceptions were dueling and food. Most people liked him, and it bothered him that they seemed to despise him.

The sun was soon hanging low over the ocean when Momoe and Junko ran up.

"Ahh, Asuka, we figured you would be here. We've been looking for you." Momoe said.

Before Asuka could respond, Junko added "Don't forget about the welcome dinner tonight. We're upperclassmen now, so we can't be late."

"But that's not the only reason we came here. We heard from Yumi who heard from Nana that Osiris got a new dorm head, and he's a famous duelist! Nana said that Mei overheard Professor Ayukawa talking to Mr. Boring Guy about how the new dorm head was probably going to get harassed to duel as soon as everyone found out he was here."

"A famous duelist? At this dump? Don't make me laugh!" Manjoume scoffed.

"I hope it's true! Can you imagine? Me against a pro at any time!" Judai laughed.

"I'm sure if a pro does come then he'll probably have some kind of rule to avoid people constantly wanting to duel him. It would be hard to get any work done if people are constantly trying to harass you into dueling them." Asuka said, pointedly looking at Judai.

"Even then, it still would be so awesome." Judai shrugged.

Asuka glanced again at the sinking sun. "We better go and get ready for the welcome dinner. You'll definitely tell the three of us if a pro does come, right? You have my number. I know these two will come harass you if you forget." She gestured to Momoe and Junko, who merely tried to look innocent.

"Hey, I wouldn't forget to tell you!" Manjoume started, but Asuka said nothing as the three girls turned and hastily began walking in the direction of the girl's dorm.

"I guess we better go get ready for the welcome dinner as well, plus since we're upperclassmen we can pick a table we like." Judai said as the three started back towards their own dorm.

"Like I want sit with you two." Manjoume said, crossing his arms.

"Well, who are you going to sit with? The new kids?" Sho asked, as he and Judai reached the bottom of the steps.

"Heh, as if! I'll be sitting by myself. I heard that there were only a few new kids this year." Manjoume rebutted.

"Okay, have fun with that. You can sit with us though if that doesn't work out." Judai told him as he walked up the steps.

* * *

Soon, Judai and Sho were sitting at a table in the middle with Manjoume. By the time Manjoume had shown up, all the tables were taken and he couldn't scare a third year out of the table he wanted, so he sat next to the both of the, muttering something about gracing them with his presence.

A plate of curry rice sat at each seat. That meant that a few plates were still unclaimed, but Judai was keeping his eye on them. They weren't fried shrimp, but who didn't like curry?

"Is this really the welcome dinner? In Obelisk we had seafood and steak and all other kinds of food. Guess I'm not surprised though." Manjoume complained.

"It's better than the meal we had last year. At least most everybody likes curry." Sho replied.

"Where is this guy anyways?" Manjoume asked. "He had to have put the food out here at some point." At that moment, the sliding door opened to reveal a blond man in his late twenties wearing the Osiris jacket. The man looked familiar to Judai, but he couldn't place the face. There was a short silence before someone spoke up.

"T-that's Katsuya Jounouchi!" A new kid yelled, and they all immediately erupted into very loud talking. Judai immediately saw it. The guy was a decade older, but he definitely was the same duelist that dueled in Battle City and Duelist Kingdom alongside Yugi. The main difference was that his hair was now shorter and a lot more professional looking.

Jounouchi, slightly taken aback, was trying to say something, but he couldn't be heard over the chatter of twenty very loud teenage boys.

Manjoume, who was already irritated, yelled very loudly "Hey, shut it!" Amazingly, they all immediately stopped talking.

"Thanks." Jounouchi said to Manjoume, who looked pleased at the fact he was the first person Jounouchi spoke to.

"As you heard, I'm Katsuya Jounouchi and I'm your dorm head this year. I'll be the overseer for the new field dueling class. I'm also the school counselor. Please come to me if you have any problems. I'll try to memorize all your names soon so I can mark you as here when you come eat dinner. I had more to say, but this smells really good and I'm hungry, so let's eat, and you can get your stuff and sign the attendance sheet before you leave." Jounouchi sat down at the front and began eating and the students followed suit.

"Amazing, I can't believe that we have Jounouchi as our dorm head! He can tell us all about his adventures with Yugi! What do you think big bro?" Sho exclaimed as Judai hastily ate his food.

"He's a cool dude." Judai said, as Sho nodded in agreement, "I'm gonna be the first to duel him."

"But big bro, remember what Asuka said?"

"It doesn't have to be tonight," Judai replied after swallowing while watching Jounouchi scarf his own curry down in a similar manner, "But I'm gonna get on the top of the waiting list."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the unintended long wait, school is very hectic. Internship interviews, exams, and undergrad research all equate to me having no free time. But, hopefully it has reached a short lull and I can get some more written, because I love writing this story. 
> 
> Thank you for the reviews, bookmarks, and kudos! They mean so much, and I'm really glad you guys are enjoying the story.


	6. First Impressions-Start of a New Year

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jounouchi's first class.

Katsuya Jounouchi would be the first to tell you that his first impression of people was typically wrong. The first that came to his mind was Yugi, the guy whom he once thought to be weak and pathetic. Though he wasn't physically was not very strong, the guy had a stronger internal strength than anyone Jounouchi knew. There were others, as well. Anzu, Otogi, Kaiba, Mai.

Because of his own realized shortcoming, he tried not to judge people based on his first impression of them. However, he doubted that anything he ever learned about the Osiris Red students would contradict his first impression of them.

They were… something else. There was Yuhei Matsuda, who was the owner of the Seto Kaiba shrine. Kenyo Sato, who signed all his papers as "mushroom" (Jounouchi didn't even want to ask). Sho Marufuji, a guy smaller than even Yugi at that age, whose file just read "NEEDS HELP" in big red letters under the notes section. Judai Yuki, the guy whom he had made a deal of  _turn in all your homework for October and we'll duel in the stadium_  merely because he didn't have the time at the moment to duel everyone that asked. And a lot did. He made that deal with Judai in particular because after five duel requests from him alone the day before classes even started, it had become slightly ridiculous.

The most peculiar student that he had met, however, had to be Jun Manjoume. Manjoume's room was right beside Jounouchi's so he heard everything that Manjoume said if he said it louder than a normal speaking tone. And boy did Manjoume shout. A lot.

At first, Jounouchi assumed that he was arguing on the phone, and considered telling him to keep it down if he was still at it after nine. However, when Manjoume was right outside Jounouchi's window yelling, he looked out through the blinds to see what it was, only to be left confused. Manjoume was varying between swatting at nothing in the air and threatening to rip up one of his cards. Jounouchi quickly shut his blinds and tried to pretend that he hadn't just seen that. Maybe it was nothing, but Yugi did the same type of things sometimes way back when he still had the Millennium Puzzle. Jounouchi just hoped that Manjoume didn't have any magical ancient artifacts. He could handle weird, but he's had enough magic for the rest of his life.

As the students settled in the day between move in day and classes starting, Jounouchi had spent it preparing for his class. While he would be teaching a relatively easy subject that was simply called "Field Dueling", tomorrow was more of an introduction rather than an actual class.

Duel Academia was odd in its set up in that it reminded Jounouchi more of a small college than it did a high school.

There were three lecture halls for each year, but the students would often have an hour break between each class. Jounouchi taught the first years at 9:00 in Hall 1, the third years at 11:00 in Hall 3, and the second years in Hall 2 at 2:00. So, luckily, Jounouchi wouldn't have to rush between the halls to get to his next class. The weird breaks, plus the fact that the school year ran from October to July and only had one dorm of girls and three dorms of boys had Jounouchi wondering why they couldn't have set this school up to be like other schools in Japan. He barely understood it himself, and it was impossible to explain to people in an email, and phone calls on the island were expensive and so they were discouraged from doing it except if it was an emergency.

He was walking to Hall 1 to prepare for class. He had a large stack of papers for the students to fill out. He already had a headache thinking about having to go through them all. He was used to filing paperwork after his time in the hospital, but this was excessive.

When he arrived in Hall 1, there were a few students already there. A group consisting of a short Obelisk Blue talking loudly to several of his male dorm mates was in the back of the class. Another two Obelisk Blue boys chatted with a Ra Yellow in the middle, and a lone Obelisk Blue girl sat reading at the front of the class. None of the students paid Jounouchi any mind as he walked to the podium at the front of the large classroom. He went through the printed out email that Mokuba had sent him one last time.  _Have the students of each year fill these out. Encourage them to do it honestly and thoroughly._ Which Jounouchi knew that maybe half of them would, but hopefully that would be enough for whatever Mokuba wanted to use the information for.

The rest of the students slowly arrived until the room was mostly full. The room was filled with their chatter. Jounouchi was very nervous; after all he didn't usually talk in front of a group of people this large, even kids. After all, no matter how outgoing you are, public speaking is another matter entirely.

He kept an eye on his watch until it was time to start, and then he called the class to attention. Another weird thing about Duel Academia: they didn't have a class representative. So, Jounouchi had to commence class himself. Anzu had described her college classes as starting in a similar way. The professor would call their attention then begin the class.

"Good morning everyone." Jounouchi began.

Most replied "Good morning", even if several of them did so half-heartedly.

"I'm Katsuya Jounouchi, just call me Jounouchi, no need for formalities, and I'll be your instructor for Field Dueling 1. This class will mostly consist of, well, you guys dueling out in the stadium." Jounouchi awkwardly paused and a few of the students nodded. "I'm also the new dorm head for Osiris and the councilor. I'm just as new as you guys so let's try to adjust together." Jounouchi chuckled a little and a few of the students joined him while most of them looked on. He really wasn't cut out for this type of thing. He was used to getting to know kids on a personal level, not talking at them.

He took a deep breath. He was supposed to pass out those handouts, but that still just didn't sound like a good idea. He wanted to actually be good at this, after all Mokuba did him a huge favor. Well, it's not like Mokuba would actually know if he postponed those handouts for one day.

"I'm supposed to have you fill out these handouts," Jounouchi gestured to the large stack of papers beside him. A few students winced. "But, you guys have only been here a day and a half. And these are all long. So, everybody stand up and gather around in a circle. Let's do something fun instead." The students all looked confused, but complied.

"Okay, we're going to go around in the circle and tell our names and an interesting fact about ourselves. I'll start. Like I said, I'm Katsuya Jounouchi, and", Jounouchi paused, thinking briefly, "I look almost exactly like my dad did when he was younger." It was random, but most of the interesting things that happen to him are unbelievable. And should be impossible. He looked to the Ra student to his right. "Okay, you next."

So, one by one the students went in a circle doing the same as he had. Honestly, he forgot their names almost as soon as they said them, but the facts were easier to remember. They were all unique and very different, versus their names which for the most part were forgettable. There was one boy who was ambidextrous and another who had the bone in his leg replaced with a dinosaur bone (that in particular sounded fake but Jounouchi didn't argue) and a girl whose sister-in-law was a pro duelist. So, he would remember them by those facts until he remembered their names.

What Jounouchi gladly noticed, however, was that many of the students who came in alone left chatting excitedly with their fellow classmates over the facts they shared.

Maybe this teaching thing would be more enjoyable than Jounouchi thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took a lot longer than I liked to write this chapter, but I should have more time to write after finals. Which are the second week in December.
> 
> And of course Jounouchi can't listen to simple instructions.
> 
> Also, I created a first year OC that is related to a Yu-Gi-Oh that will be relevant, in opposition to the other ones that will mostly be passing. I'm actually kind of excited because I've never seen an OC that is the sister of this character, and I'll get to try out stretching my characterization, especially since I want her to be a good character instead of a liked one. She was seen in this chapter and should appear further on.


	7. Thunder VS Elite-kun! Mecha Ojama King Takes Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Update with a duel for you guys.

One of the last lunchtime conversations that Jounouchi had with his supervisor at Domino City Hospital, Mizuki, was about what he liked about working at Rintama Middle School. Jounouchi was unsure why it had never been brought up before. They had talked about it several times. After all, it had been where Jounouchi had met Mizuki. He had spent many hours in his office talking about his fighting, after all.

Mizuki had laughed when Jounouchi had bluntly asked "What did you like about working in a rundown school like that?"

"I'm gonna miss the way you ask stuff so bluntly, kid. The others are always so formal." His other coworker in the cafeteria, Mrs. Terada, had slightly smiled at that comment. She was well aware of how formal she was.

"I'm not a kid, Mizuki, I'm 28 years old!" Jounouchi interjected.

"Sorry, but you'll always be in middle school to me. Even if you aren't a pipsqueak anymore." Mizuki laughed. Jounouchi grumbled under his breath while Terada sighed. This exchange had happened many times before. "But, anyways, to answer your question…" Jounouchi perked up. "Honestly, I think it was mostly how many different kids you deal with… Not that there's not a variety here, but school kids deal with all different types of things. And most of them are easy fixes, versus here, where, well you know how difficult it can be sometimes. Plus, each year of students as a whole have their own personality. You'll have a year of good kids then a year of trouble makers. I think you'll do well at this Duel Academia. Not that I really understand all the hype, but then again, I'm an old guy!" Mizuki chuckled. Jounouchi felt a flush of pride. After all, for Mizuki, who knew him during his worst time, to believe in him was a very good sign.

Jounouchi was reflecting on that conversation during the faculty meeting in the afternoon on the third day of class. He was only halfway paying attention to what Napoleon was saying, those French phrases made it hard to keep up with what he was talking about. Jounouchi barely knew anything past elementary school level English, much less any French or Italian phrases. He wasn't even acknowledged in them usuallyexcept to be asked if Edo Phoenix had attended any of his classes. He hadn't, and Jounouchi had thought it was a joke when he saw his name on the roster. Then Cronos had started almost crying and Jounouchi went back to not paying attention. That's how it had gone the first two days, anyways.

Today, however, Napoleon had started rambling on, like usual, with random interjections from Cronos, while Kabayama, Ayukawa, Satou and Jounouchi himself sat silently.

Then, Cronos had excitedly pulled out a poster. "Signor Manjoume shall be the star of Duel Academia, and represent us!" He declared while holding the poster that Jounouchi recognized as a first year student, and Jun Manjoume, the boy in his dorm that liked to shout at nothing. And complain about everything. Manjoume had a very high record in his record, but Jounouchi couldn't help but wonder why out of all students Manjoume was chosen. After all, Manjoume didn't even have the highest record in Red alone. But, then again, maybe he had a good dueling attitude.

"Of course, we'll need the dorm head Monsieur Jounouchi to give us the okay. After all, this is a promotion duel." Napoleon interrupted Cronos's rambling, and every teacher turned to Jounouchi.

"Hm. If he wants to, I'll sign off on it. But only if he wants to." Jounouchi said. He thought it sounded cool, but he saw Ayukawa snort in laughter behind her hand. He liked Ayukawa, she reminded him of Shizuka, that same gentle yet teasing manner. Then again, he didn't really dislike any of his coworkers, he just couldn't figure out what Napoleon and Cronos were about.

He still didn't really understand what they were about, even as he sat in the dueling arena the next morning. He sat among his first year students, who spread themselves out in the middle of the arena behind where Gokaido would be standing. He was happy to see that most of them seemed to be sitting in groups. There were a few stray students of each dorm.  _Maybe they will end up sitting together next time._ Jounouchi thought to himself. He would never have made it through high school if it wasn't for his friends.

He was pulled from that train of thoughts by a voice. "Professor Jounouchi, mind if I sit here? I can't find my friends." Jounouchi glanced to the owner, a dark haired Ra that Jounouchi recognized as a second year. The guy who made his deck using equations. What was his name again?

"Sure, but drop the 'professor' I'm not technically a teacher." Jounouchi replied. The boy sat between Jounouchi and a solitary first year girl, who Jounouchi recognized because her appearance reminded him of Mokuba in a way, similar tan skin and dark hair with grey eyes. She was the one whose sister-in-law was a pro duelist.

The boy turned to her. "I'm Misawa."

"Reiko." Misawa seemed confused by her introducing herself by her given name, but did not comment.

By this point, Napoleon was watching Manjoume and Gokaido cut each other's decks.

"Everyone, you're attention, s'il vous plait." Napoleon announced to the audience. "Today, we shall hold a star-finder duel to uncover new talent. Our star candidate is Monsieur Manjoume. If he wins, he may return to the shining embrace of Obelisk Blue." Napoleon pointed zealously at Manjoume while some of the upperclassmen cheered and others made comments about a promotion duel this early in the year.

"I shall now introduce his opponent! The hyper-elite who graduated first in his middle school class… Hozan Gokaido!" Napoleon announced just as loudly.

"Who exactly is Gokaido, to be called super elite?" Jounouchi commented.

"He apparently was the top duelist at the Duel Academia middle school. He's one of the few guys who started in Blue straight off. In fact, that's just how Manjoume was last year." Misawa answered.

"Now let us begin the duel with new student Monseiur Gokaido taking the first move!" Napoleon announced.

"You were the strongest in middle school, but they sent you to Osiris Red. There's something wrong with this school!" Gokaido yelled.  _Hey, what's wrong with Red?_ Jounouchi thought, but then remembered it was supposed to be the bottom level dorm.

"I wasn't sent there." Manjoume answered. Gokaido gasped. That obnoxious Judai refused to rise to my level, so I came to him, with the intention of dominating both Blue and Red! But now, I've tired of such games. I will beat you and return to Blue!"

Jounouchi chuckled. "That Manjoume is something else."

"Duel!" Manjoume and Gokaido said in unision.

"Oh yeah, you're his dorm leader, aren't you Jounouchi? Is Manjoume really good enough to be a school idol?" Reiko asked.

"I honestly have no idea. I haven't seen any of the students duel yet." Jounouchi said slightly abashed.

"He's good, but he's not the best in the school." Misawa simply said.

"My turn, I draw!" Gokaido began.

"I summon Marauding Captain!" A human-like monster in armor appeared.

Marauding Captain: 1200

"And I activate its effect! When Marauding Captain is summoned, I can summon a level 4 or below monster." Another monster appeared on the field, a female warrior.

Warrior Lady of the Wasteland: 1100

"All the minor monsters in the world won't help you here." Manjoume said in a bored tone.

"I'm not done yet of course….I activate the spell card Jewel Sword. I equip it to Marauding Captain!

Marauding Captain: 1500

"And also I activate Divine Sword-Phoenix Blade."

Warrior Lady of the Wasteland: 1400

"I set a card and end my turn!"

"Now, it's your turn,  _the_  Manjoume. You may not know this, but all this time I've worked hard because I've admired your dueling style. Your careful card selection, your battle tactics, your proud way of conducting yourself…I want you to show me that ultimate duel!"

Manjoume paused, as if in thought. "I won't hold back. My turn! Draw! I summon X-Head Cannon!" A metal monster with guns attached appeared on the field.

X-Head Cannon: 1800

Jounouchi hadn't seen anyone duel with these cards in person since Kaiba used them, so he was curious to see Manjoume's strategy for getting Y and Z on the field.

"Now, I activate my spell card Graceful Charity! It's effect lets me draw three cards and discard two." Manjoume explained as he did just that. "The first card I discard is Chthonian Polymer. The second is Ojamagic!"

"Oja…Ojamagic?" Gokaido shouted in surprise.

"When this card is sent to the graveyard, I add Ojama Green, Ojama Yellow, and Ojama Black to my hand." Manjoume then grimaced in frustration, though Jounouchi couldn't figure out why he did.

"You're using small cards like those?"

"Hm. Just watch me. I activate my spell card from my hand! Ojama Ride!"

"Wh-What's that?" Gokaido gasped again in surprise.

"By sending three Ojamas to the graveyard, this card lets me special summon up to three Machine-Type Union Monsters, of level 4 or below, from my deck in defense position! If you're the hyper-elite, then I'm the hyper-super elite!" Manjoume shouted. Misawa snorted at that. "I can find uses for even the smallest of cards. Come out, Y-Dragon Head, Z-Metal Tank!" A red metalloid dragon and bulbous yellow machine appeared on the field.

Y-Dragon Head: 1500

Z-Metal Tank: 1500

"Let's go! I fuse X, Y, and Z, to special summon XYZ-Dragon Cannon!" As expected with union monsters, this monster was a visual combination of the three.

XYZ-Dragon Cannon: 2800

Gokaido stepped back. "A-Amazing…"

"He had to have seen that coming." Misawa deadpanned.

"And I activate XYZ-Dragon Cannon's effect! By sending these to cards to the graveyard," Manjoume held up two spell cards, "I destroy Warrior Lady of the Wasteland and Marauding Captain!" Said monsters disappeared in a shattering light. "Now your side of the field is wide open. Attack him directly! XYZ Hyper Cannon!" The field erupted into light as Gokaido yelled from the wind created by the attack.

Gokaido LP: 1200

As soon as the wind died down, Gokaido immediately quipped "Jewel Sword's effect activates! When it's sent to the graveyard, I draw one card!"

"I end my turn." Manjoume said.

"Here I come,  _the_ Manjoume! My turn! I activate Pot of Greed! Its effect lets me draw two cards." He drew two cards and briefly looked at them. "I activate my set card Call of the Haunted! I resurrect one monster from my graveyard. Return, Warrior Lady of the Wasteland! Then I equip her with my spell card Great Sword!" The female warrior reappeared.

Warrior Lady of the Wasteland: 1400

"Another equip spell? A mere 300 attack bonus won't let you beat my XYZ-Dragon!"

"I tribute Warrior Lady of the Wasteland to summon my level 8 Gilford the Legend!" A large warrior with little armor and a huge sword appeared.

Gilford the Legend: 2600

Manjoume looked taken aback for the first time in the duel. "W-What?" Jounouchi was surprised as well, that card was a pretty rare card. Rare enough that it had been his birthday present from Shizuka and his mom.

"I also activate Gilford the Legend's effect. When it's successfully summoned, I can attach as many equip spells as possible from my graveyard." Gokaido stated. Manjoume gasped in shock. First, I equip Divine Sword-Phoenix Blade." The already massive sword Gilford was holding grew in size.

Gilford the Legend: 2900

"Then Jewel Sword." The sword grew even larger.

Gilford the Legend: 3200

"And on top of that, Great Sword!" And bigger still.

Gilford the Legend: 3500

"It's not over yet… I activate Flamberge-Baou from my hand! I discard one card to equip it!" Bright lights burst from the monster's sword.

Gilford the Legend: 4000

Manjoume looked genuinely afraid.

"Here I go" Gokaido laughed, then Gilford attacked.

Manjoume: 2800

"I end my turn." Gokaido said with a slight smirk.

Manjoume chuckled. "A duel needs competition to be interesting. My turn. Draw!" He held out a spell card. "I activate Pot of Greed! I draw two cards from my deck." He looked at his two cards. "I finally have it. I activate my spell card Ojamandala!"

"Ojamandala?" Gokaido asked in surprise.

"I pay 1000 life points to special summon these three."

Manjoume: 1800

The three Ojama brothers appeared in triangle formation.

Ojama Green: 1000

Ojama Yellow: 1000

Ojama Black: 1000

"I have all three of the little fools back on the field. Do you understand what that means?" Manjoume asked with a smirk. Jounouchi wondered what kind of duelist insulted their own cards.

"Who cares?" Gokaido retorted.

"So naïve." Manjoume quipped back.

Gokkaido gasped. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I activate my spell card! Go!" Ojama Delta Hurricane! activated, and the Ojama brothers put their bottoms together and spun. "Take this! Sure-Kill Ojama Delta Hurricane!" Every card on Gokaido's field was destroyed.

"O-Oh no! Destroyed, with a weenie attack like that?" Gokaido fell to his knees.

"I can use Ojama Delta Hurricane! to destroy all the monsters on your side of the field if all three Ojamas are on mine."

Gokaido grit his teeth. "Jewel Sword's effect activates! When it's sent to the graveyard I draw one card from my deck."

"My last move will be to set one card."

"Don't tell me… It's not another Ojama thing, is it?" Gokaido said angrily.

"I end my turn." Manjoume slyly said.

"I knew it. When did you start using such a lousy deck? I won't forgive you! You're not the Manjoume I looked up to!" Gokaido shouted angrily.

"'Lousy'? If that's what you think, I'll show you the humiliation of using a lousy deck." Manjoume said coolly.

"I didn't think you were the type of guy who would duel like this. My turn. Draw!" He showed the card he drew to Manjoume. "I activate my spell card Premature Burial. I pay 800 life points to special summon a monster from my graveyard, and equip it with this card."

Gokaido: 400

"I choose to summon… Armed Samurai-Ben Kei." A battle-wounded warrior appeared.

Armed Samurai-Ben Kei: 500

"Then I activate the effect of Divine Sword-Phoenix Blade from my graveyard. By banishing two Warrior-type monsters, I can add this card to my hands. Then I activate Divine Sword-Phoenix Blade and Lightning Blade in my hand and equip them!

Armed Samurai-Ben Kei: 800

Armed Samurai-Ben Kei: 1600

"I will force you to open your eyes." Ben Kei attacked Ojama Yellow. "In addition to its normal attack, Ben Kei can attack as many times as its number of equipped cards."

Manjoume stepped back in shock. "What?"

"One. Two." Both of the remaining Ojamas were destroyed. "My third attack!" Ben Kei attacked Manjoume directly, and the wind sent him reeling.

Manjoume: 200

"You see? The cards you're using are garbage that can't even properly protect you!"

Manjoume angrily retorted "I activate my trap card! Ojama Delta Wear!"

"W-Wear?" Gokaido questioned.

"This turn, I special summon all the Ojamas you destroyed back from my graveyard!"

"Academia made the right call." Gokaido said.

"Huh?" Manjoume was visibly confused.

"Osiris Red suits you better. You're an underachiever who puts trash in his deck."

"'Underachiever', you say?"

"I've heard all about the Osiris Red dorm. The building is in ruins. The food is terrible. The rooms are tiny, and it's only by sheer luck that your dorm leader isn't a cat!"  
"I thought the building and food were okay." Jounouchi said, downtrodden.

"Not only that, but the duelists are all small-time, right?"

"It's true that Osiris Red is horrible. And the duelists are all small-time. But I've learned from them that there's a layer below the bottom of the barrel! But being reduced to their level has shown me things that you can't see from the heights of the elite. My turn! Draw! You want to know why I needed all three Ojamas together? Here's why! I activate my spell card Polymerization!" The three Ojamas combined into Ojama King, a large white Ojama.

Ojama King: 0

"But it has zero attack points!"

"But there's still something only he can do. I activate my spell card! Change! Mecha Ojama King!" A large metallic Ojama appeared. "This card tributes Ojama King to special summon Mecha Ojama King.

Mecha Ojama King: 0

"Then I activate Mecha Ojama King's effect! Once per turn, I can special summon one Ojamachine. Come out Ojamachine Yellow!" A mechanical Ojama Yellow appeared.

Ojamachine Yellow: 0

"Now I activate Ojamachine Yellow's effect! I special summon Ojamachine Tokens." Ojamachine Yellow opened its mouth and an identical one came out until there were four. "Go."

The Ojamachines frog-hopped to Gokaido's side of the field.

"What are you trying to do? My monster has 1600 attack points…They have 0." One collided with Ben Kei and exploded on impact.

Gokaido smiled "I win."  
"Ojamachine Yellow reduces any damage I take in battle to 0. And when it's destroyed, it deals 300 damage to you."

"What?" Gokaido said in disbelief.

Gokaido: 100

"To fall into hell, and then claw your way back… Are you capable of that?" Manjoume asked Gokaido, who gaped in shock. "Go, my garbage!" The other three Ojamachines attacked Ben-Kei.

Gokaido: 0

Gokaido fell to his knees.

"Well, my year wasn't in vain, was it? If you lived a million years, you couldn't learn what I've learned. Coming from the top of your middle school class, you counldn't hope to compete with Red's duelists!" He pointed at Gokaido. "You have no right to look down at Reds or at garbage cards! Now, listen up and remember! I am." He pointed to the sky "One!"

A group of upper classmen cheered "Ten!"

A trio sitting in the front added "Hundred!"

Cronos shouted "Thousand!"

"Manjoume Thunder!" Manjoume himself shouted and the arena erupted with applause. A boy in a red jacket that Jounouchi quickly recognized as Judai ran onto stage and hugged Manjoume, and soon the reds all ran to him. Jounouchi stood up and hopped over the railing, and joined his dorm students on the stage. Manjoume was protesting as him dorm mates tossed him into the sky.

"You sure do complain a lot for someone who loves Red so much!" Jounouchi called up to him.

Cronos approached the group. "You have such affection for Red? Then I would not dream of forcing you from it." Cronos shrugged.

Manjoume's cry of "what" was ignored.

"Everyone!" Cronos announced into the microphone. "Signor Manjoume deserves to remain in Osiris Red!" The crowd called terms of agreement. Manjoume was still in shock. "The vote is unanimous. You will not be moved."

Manjoume's continued protests were ignored.

Later that afternoon, Sho was walking through the hallways when he heard the shouting of "We should eliminate Osiris Red!" Of course, he immediately went to tell his big bro.

"Do you really think Jounouchi would let them shut the dorm down?" At that moment, the building shook. The two of them ran outside to the balcony, only to discover a very irritated Jounouchi and a gleeful Manjoume.

Jounouchi frowned at them. "Sorry, guys, it seems that Cronos has approved for Manjoume to do a room renovation." He said simply.

"Never mind that. Jounouchi, is Osiris really gonna close?" Judai asked him.

The man blinked. "Close, of course not. Why?"

"Sho overheard Cronos and Napoleon talking about them."

"Were they now…" Jounouchi looked over at the main building. It made sense, but it just made his job a lot harder.


	8. Tyranno Kenzan Appears Upstairs, Saurus

Osiris Red was easily the smallest dorm in the school. There were a little less than twenty members, and they were mostly divided up three to a room, except in the case of Manjoume and Jounouchi, who each had their own room, and two groups of students that were only two to a room.

Even with that, it still irritated Jounouchi to find that Cronos had approved Manjoume to have renovations done to his own room.

“Wait, what do you mean that Cronos approved this?” Jounouchi looked over the paper that Manjoume had gleefully shoved at him.

“ _I hereby grant Jun Manjoume permission to have his room renovated as long as he is responsible for the cost of it. -Cronos de Medici_ ” Jounouchi read out loud. He gave the paper back to Manjoume. Cronos was the acting headmaster, so there wasn’t really anything that Jounouchi could do. “Just make sure that those guys don’t work after dinner.” Which Jounouchi was so confused how those guys got here so fast anyways, but then again, he really didn’t understand rich people. At that time, the workers started, and the doors all opened, so partially some all the way, for the dorm residents to see what was going on. Most closed the door without further investigation, but Judai Yuki and Sho Marufuji both ran out.

Jounouchi frowned at them. "Sorry, guys, it seems that Cronos has approved for Manjoume to do a room renovation."

"Never mind that. Jounouchi, is Osiris really gonna close?" Judai asked him.

The man blinked. "Close, of course not. Why?"

"Sho overheard Cronos and Napoleon talking about them."

"Were they now…" Jounouchi looked over at the main building. It made sense, but it just made his job a lot harder. “Well, I’m not sure what they plan to do, but if they want to shut down this dorm they’ll have to go through me.” And Mokuba, though hopefully it wouldn’t have to come to that.

Because of that, Jounouchi had been on his guard around the two for the next few days, but they had not seemed to be making any moves to shut down the dorm. Instead, their attention was more focused on a duel disk thief. Only four of the Red students had been targeted. Most of the victims were Blues.

“I’ll send some students to go fetch the duel disks later.” Cronos announced. “In other news, we’ve picked a new star duelist. Asuka Tenjouin will become our idol!”

Jounouchi, who was finally starting to remember student’s names, wasn’t particularly surprised that she was chosen.

It must have been the first time that Ayukawa heard as well, since she actually loudly laughed, the first time that Jounouchi had heard her do so, instead of her usual snorts of amusement.

Cronos seemed taken aback as well. “Is that your approval, Ayukawa?”

She smiled in amusement. “If you could get Tenjoin to agree to it, sure. But there’s a bigger chance of Jounouchi here being the school idol.”

“Hey, why do you gotta bring me into this?” Jounouchi interjected. He hadn’t even said anything.

Cronos ignored that. “Well, I’ll ask her either way. But first, I need to get the situation with the duel disks settled.”

And that had been that. He didn’t even give any thought when he signed off on Judai and Sho’s detention slip from Cronos to go get more duel disks.

Until he heard the shouts of Sho later that night and walked up stairs to investigate.

“Hey, are you even listening?” Manjoume interjected.

 He poked his head in the open door. “Hey, guys let’s keep it down… What are you doing?” Inside, were Sho, Judai, Manjoume, and a student unloading a knapsack full of stuff.  Jounouchi recognized him as a Ra first year, who always had a group of Ra students around him wearing similar dinosaur hats.

“Jounouchi! This guy is moving himself into our room, and I don’t want him here.” Sho called.

“I don’t mind.” Judai argued. “We need a lot of people on our side if Cronos wants to shut down the Red dorm.”

“You three,” he looked at Judai, Sho, and Manjoume “don’t worry about Cronos and Napoleon. Focus on your classes and I’ll keep him from tearing down the dorm.”

“I wasn’t worrying.” Majoume boredly added from the top bunk.

“And you, Kenzan, right?” He looked at the Ra, who nodded. “Don’t you have your own private room to go back to? Why do you want to live here?”

“It’s because I want to learn from my big bro Judai.”

“What did I say about calling him ‘big bro’? He’s my big bro, not yours! Jounouchi, can’t you send him back. I’m sure he’s breaking the rules!” Sho started.

Sensing another round of shouting, Jounouchi interrupted before Kenzan could respond.

“Actually, the only dorm rules are that students can’t go out after midnight or alter their dorms without permission.” He gave Manjoume a look. Those workers of his shook all his papers off his desk working. Twice. “Besides that there are no set rules. So, I’m gonna leave this to the two of you to decide. I have no personal problem with you stay here, but if they’re not comfortable with it then I’ll send you back to Ra, where you have your own room. But you’ll want to talk to your own dorm head as well.”

Sho looked annoyed, but sighed after Judai gave him a look. “Fine he can stay.” Kenzan looked triumphant and began unpacking his bag.

“Also, Manjoume, when will your room be completed?”

“Three days at the latest. But, where is dino brat gonna sleep?” Jounouchi left, but heard Manjoume’s shout of “I’m not sharing a bed with him!” a few seconds later.

“Huh. It seems those guys will be the ones to keep things interesting around here.” Jounouchi said to himself, thinking of his own days of constant excitement back when he was in high school.


	9. Omake- Resolution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even though they have nothing in common, they're all duelists, and girls have to stick together in the dueling world.
> 
> A holiday special chapter, even though the chapter takes place in October.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some lady pro duelist OCs. And some cannon characters. Because I'm slowly trying to make a system for ranking pros since the show never had one. And the GENEX tournament will have a lot more guest pros than it did in the show.

In a large penthouse suite in Saint-Tropez, France, six women gathered around a counter top on a cool mid-October night.

Sophie Paquet, the 25 year old owner of the penthouse, is the oldest daughter of a Frenchman who owned a few bed and breakfasts located in the French and German countrysides, and is the accountant for said business when she's not in the European Professional Dueling League.

Vivian Wong is known as a model, actress, and Kung Fu Champion. The 32 year old is a long-standing top duelist in the Asian Dueling League.

Mai Kujaku also is in the Asian Dueling League, but tends to participate more in private tournaments where there is a hefty ante. Otherwise, she tests cards for Industrial Illusions.

Natalie Young is the single member of the group from Dueling League of America. She also owns a soft drink bottling plant along with her brother out of their small hometown in the States. She's 38, the oldest of their group.

Kasumi Fudo, like Mai, hails from Japan and is a pro in the Asian Dueling League. She also works as a Systems Engineer Manager in Kaiba Corporation's Research and Development. Even though at 28 she's the second youngest of their group, she is also the only one who is married.

Poppy Baccus, like Sophie, is in the European Professional Dueling League. The 33 year old also works as the UK district representative of Industrial Illusions, and prides herself as being Sophie's rival, though the rivalry is just friendly competition rather than anything serious.

At first glance these women seemed to have little in common. Only two of them were even from the same country. But, dueling brings the six of them together. After all, dueling is a male-dominated game, so girls tended to stick together when they met.

"I'm still laughing at the look on Monsieur Parker's face when you played Mirror Force, Vivian!" Sophie laughed as she stirred a sauce pan on the stove.

Vivian smiled from where she was pouring wine into six stemmed glasses on the stone tabletop.

"The man's awful. And you only had to deal with him for a single duel I'm matched with him all the time." Poppy added.

"I don't know. We get some real interesting guys in the Asian branch." Kasumi said, as Mai nodded in agreement from where she was looking through the mail her manager had given her earlier.

"Hmm. I just have Pegasus and his card professors. They're all pretty... Unusual." Natalie commented while setting out silverware.

"Let's be real, though, aren't all duelists a little quirky." Vivian said as she.

"Agreed." Sophie said as she carefully spooned pasta onto the plates that were placed on the table.

The six women sat around the table with their pasta dish and wine glasses. "Okay, ladies, time for rose, bud, thorn!" Natalie excitedly said.

This was a game that she had introduced to them the first time they had spent time together away from the dueling arena. They would each tell a good thing (rose), a bad thing (thorn), and something they looked forward to (bud). Since they never got more than a few hours together every few months, this was a way for them to quickly catch up before they parted ways again.

This kind of friendship was the kind that Mai liked. Seeing them every once in a while, no way to hurt each other or to let each other down. They also were unaware of how she was when she was younger, and she could pretend around them that she had never been selfish or superficial or anything other than a confident, independent woman who, while not an extrovert, was not unfriendly either.

That's why, as she told her own rose, bud, and thorn, she felt a slight ache in her heart.

For the first time in her life, she was genuinely happy with who she was. She wished that she had been this person her whole life. If she had been like this, then she would have never hurt or been hurt 12 years ago. She would not have taken things to heart the way she did back then, and would have laughed them off.

That's why, even though she wanted to pretend that she had never been part of Doma, she also wanted to see Jounouchi, Anzu, Yugi and their friends again. She wanted to show those people, who were always talking about the importance of friends, how much she had changed. 

 _Soon_ she promised herself. Because, before she could even approach any of them and apologize for anything, she would have to resolve to forgive herself for it. For wanting to kill people who cared about her. For wanting to hurt innocent people. All for the pursuit of power.

But, that would be an issue she would face later. Right now, she had a delicious Penne pasta in front of her, a glass of quality wine in her hand, and good company to enjoy the two with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am posting this from my phone because I have nothing to do other than write because my surgery has me bed-ridden for the past few days.
> 
> Also, yes that is Mama Fudo, the pro thing is for a reason, mostly to help with the flow of the whole creation of Momentum and attempt to make sense of some of the things done, as well as give both her and the doctor a personality and a story besides "Yusei's dead parents".


End file.
